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"My iOS app is being pirated. Over 90% haven't paid for it. What can I do?"

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Re: "My iOS app is being pirated. Over 90% haven't paid for it. What can I do?"

#31

Post by frooxie »

erik wrote: post #22
Vitaly wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are lots of cases when it was documented for piracy to bring positive change. This guys problem? Patience ;) Come on. The game was mass pirated like yesturday? Does he really expect the positive loop back to kick in that fast? People that pirated it will take time to play it, like it, mention it to someone that might buy it, blog it, show off to friends etc, etc, etc. it takes time. but eventually those 500 pir…

I find this to be an interesting data point: http://www.indiegames.com/2008/02/opinion_casual_games_and_p... A casual game developer dramatically increased their sales by improving the effectiveness of their DRM. I strongly dislike DRM in games, and will avoid games that push it to far. But it's hard to argue against the sales numbers quoted in the linked article.

Well, it says that "For every 1,000 pirated copies we eliminated, we created 1 additional sale", suggesting that piracy isn't anything to worry about, as 99.9% of pirates wouldn't have bought a copy anyway.

Re: "My iOS app is being pirated. Over 90% haven't paid for it. What can I do?"

#32

Post by nupark2 »

patio11 wrote: post #27

Let me condense the conversation for you: Blah blah blah, free marketing, blah blah blah, wouldn't have bought it anyway, blah blah blah, DRM never works. Then you move your code to the server and this never bothers you again. This defeats piracy so well it works in China .

This sounds more like a narrative that supports your entrenched position, personal worldview, and target audience, rather than an actual useful summary of the many lucid arguments put forward in the original link.

Re: "My iOS app is being pirated. Over 90% haven't paid for it. What can I do?"

#33

Post by [deleted] »

patio11 wrote: post #30
trevelyan wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Piracy might not bother him again... until his pirated downloads drop by 98% and paid downloads drop by 50%. And when he complains about this on Hacker News, patio11 tells him to spend more time blogging and working on SEO. ;)

My advice would have the desirable property of actually working.

[deleted]

Re: "My iOS app is being pirated. Over 90% haven't paid for it. What can I do?"

#34

Post by nupark2 »

yoda_sl wrote: post #23
muhfuhkuh wrote: post #4

I wonder. Since there are code snippets that can check to see if an app has been cracked/pirated, perhaps there is a way to inject an overlay serving ads on those who pirated. They can't exactly write a negative review on itunes because you can't rate an app unless you've purchased it.

It's always the same game of cat & mouse with pirates. Most pirates on iOS are simply using one of the free tool and don't go far beyond that. I have implemented a technique for detecting pirated app and used it now in many apps: since then the piracy rate went down to zero which convinced that most pirates on iOS are simply using a tool and don't know what to do if the app they try to crack fail. I am sure that a tr…

> If anyone is interested to learn what can be done, send me an email.

Are you checking that the Mach-O binary is encrypted? I'm not aware of that being worked around by any of the automated tools (and it an approach that is widely discussed).

Re: "My iOS app is being pirated. Over 90% haven't paid for it. What can I do?"

#35

Post by Vivtek »

Goladus wrote: post #18
teamonkey wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm definitely one of those "The people that pirate your software, never would have bought it in the first place" believers. I think that's only true for X% of the people who pirate. Pro-piracy groups like to assume X=100% (that people who pirate would never be persuaded to purchase a copy), anti-piracy groups assume that X=0% (that every pirate can be persuaded to purchase a copy). The truth is that X is probably…

> The truth is that X is probably somewhere in between. X depends a lot on the particular piece of software, the target market, and the context in which it's available. There won't ever be any generalized data. One interesting test would be to offer an app for a ridiculously low price, like $0.01 and see how many people don't bother to pay even that.

A dollar is a ridiculously low price, really. (Not that you're wrong.)

Re: "My iOS app is being pirated. Over 90% haven't paid for it. What can I do?"

#36

Post by Vivtek »

ansy wrote: post #16
crag wrote: post #8

How are they pirating it.. unless they jail-break their phone? I don't do iphone apps, but I was under the impression Apple controlled the distribution?

I'm not sure if it works anymore. But with the App Store you can download on anyone's device after you pay for it once. For example, I buy Angry Birds, and then I log in on your phone and install Angry Birds on it as a free update. Then I log out of your phone, and Angry Birds is still installed. I didn't even know it was possible and I did iOS development. Then I saw someone do it and had a WTF moment. He just said…

Not in Tennessee, though!

Re: "My iOS app is being pirated. Over 90% haven't paid for it. What can I do?"

#38

Post by SoftwareMaven »

frooxie wrote: post #31
erik wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find this to be an interesting data point: http://www.indiegames.com/2008/02/opinion_casual_games_and_p... A casual game developer dramatically increased their sales by improving the effectiveness of their DRM. I strongly dislike DRM in games, and will avoid games that push it to far. But it's hard to argue against the sales numbers quoted in the linked article.

Well, it says that "For every 1,000 pirated copies we eliminated, we created 1 additional sale", suggesting that piracy isn't anything to worry about, as 99.9% of pirates wouldn't have bought a copy anyway.

And with this numbers, you have to have a lot of sales/would-have-been-pirates to cover the cost of implementing and maintaining the DRM.

Re: "My iOS app is being pirated. Over 90% haven't paid for it. What can I do?"

#39

Post by Roritharr »

patio11 wrote: post #30
trevelyan wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Piracy might not bother him again... until his pirated downloads drop by 98% and paid downloads drop by 50%. And when he complains about this on Hacker News, patio11 tells him to spend more time blogging and working on SEO. ;)

My advice would have the desirable property of actually working.

Why is success that is generated by some kind of act that is seen as "work" in a way better than success that is generated by the planned use of known forces (online piracy).

I don't want to get all bruce lee, but isn't redirecting some kind of force, be it the interest of pirates or something else, always better than to work against it?

Re: "My iOS app is being pirated. Over 90% haven't paid for it. What can I do?"

#40

Post by SoftwareMaven »

Goladus wrote: post #18
teamonkey wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm definitely one of those "The people that pirate your software, never would have bought it in the first place" believers. I think that's only true for X% of the people who pirate. Pro-piracy groups like to assume X=100% (that people who pirate would never be persuaded to purchase a copy), anti-piracy groups assume that X=0% (that every pirate can be persuaded to purchase a copy). The truth is that X is probably…

> The truth is that X is probably somewhere in between. X depends a lot on the particular piece of software, the target market, and the context in which it's available. There won't ever be any generalized data. One interesting test would be to offer an app for a ridiculously low price, like $0.01 and see how many people don't bother to pay even that.

The major friction point is not the $1 cost, it is the effort involved in pilling out the wallet at all. Apple/Google/Amazon/etc have lowered that friction with purchasing through one click purchasing, but the majority of it is still "do I want to buy this".

I would put money on sales at $1 not being statistically different from $0.01.

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